Category Archives: Growth Mindset

After a poor performance in the mid-term test (or at any other task), have your thoughts wandered in this direction:

“I’m a total failure.”

“I suck in math.”

“Everyone else seems to be doing better than me. I’m just not cut out for this.”

“Life is unfair, and my efforts are not going to make a difference.”

“The teacher is biased.”

If such thoughts often cross your mind, then you display fixed mindset, one of the two mindsets (the other being growth mindset) first articulated by Carol Dweck, one of the world’s leading researchers on achievement and success, and the author of bestseller Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

When you finish an article or book on how a superstar became successful, I bet most of you wonder, “How can I emulate this guy?” You, of course, know ‘ten ways to be A+ student’ and the like, but you also know that knowledge of those ten ways is not enough. They alone won’t take you there. You need few underlying, invisible forces working like your DNA to lead you there.

As a beginner, when you shoot basketballs to the hoop, solve calculus problems, or perform in front of an audience, you typically meet with disappointment. Progress, often, is slow and tortuous. And failures, common.

During this phase, many wonder, “How come others do the same things so effortlessly?”

If you’re finding it difficult to deal with depression in college or high school, if you think you’re the unfortunate one, and, worse, if you feel life is not worth living, then watch this video. Bit longish (nearly 15 minutes), but worth watching.

Nick Vujicic was born with tetra-Amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized with absence of all four limbs. As a child, he was teased and mocked at. He thought he had no future, no opportunity, and no hope. And he nearly attempted suicide at the age of ten.

Today, he is a sought-after speaker (30,000 standing invitations at the time of this talk), has addressed millions in 60+ countries, has met the who’s who, runs a non-profit and a for-profit venture, has written two books, has done a music video, has acted in a short film with an award winning performance, and has a spouse and a child.

On October 24, 2014, Alan Eustace, then Senior Vice President of Knowledge at Google, jumped off a helium balloon from stratosphere, creating two world records – longest and highest (135,890 feet) free-fall than any other human being.
In all, he took just 15 minutes to complete the record-breaking fall.

Just 15 minutes.

It doesn’t look too difficult: he donned a special suit, took a helium balloon from Roswell, New Mexico, ascended to 135,890 feet, jumped, opened the parachute few hundred feet above the ground, and… record accomplished.